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Man of War
In game Overall strategy This elegant warship is a more refined and less exaggerated in profile compared to the Galleon , with a greater focus on cannon fire, and has a more sophisticated architecture, featuring a lower hull, greater sail area and tumblehome for added stability and speed, making it more effective as a main line fighter. As it is, it is built with an eye towards increasing its survivability and rate of fire, but it is still a rather slow unit. The guns of a Man of War may well outshoot those of small escort vessels, but the Man of War suffers from one major flaw: it can't attack while moving in comparison to more modern units such as the Heavy Frigate, so it has problems in defending itself from escort units such as Galleys or even dreaded Fire Vessels. For this reason, a Man of War should be escorted with the weaker but faster Frigates, as well as its own escort craft such as Yachts or other Galleys to drive off enemy light craft where possible. Unit summary *Powerful heavy ship with increased rate of fire, built to attain surface marine superiority. *Has +1 armour and a few more hitpointsand higher rate of fire compared to Man of War. History The Man-of-War was a fully sailing ship that relied almost entirely on its sails, as opposed to earlier ships, such as the Galley. Although popular culture today holds such a ship to be a distinct breed of its own, in reality, the term itself could refer to any vessel that was heavily armed and powered wholly by sails. Even a large frigate with sufficiently powerful guns could count as one. Popular confusions aside, what cannot be denied was that the 18th century was a busy time for arms manufacturers and engineers, and out of the continued imperialistic conflicts between European powers emerged a new and powerful ship meant primarily to dominate marine combat, in the form of warships that could host multiple gun decks and host multiple guns, 12-pounders being the smallest, with the largest being the hefty 68-pounder guns that could cause major damage to enemy ships. Such a ship was called a ship of the line because of the expectation that it would be used primarily for hostile encounters, with frigates providing the logistical and intelligence services needed. Ships-of-the-line could host as many as three decks. Ships of this type included the legendary HMS Victory, flagship of Lord Horatio Nelson at the decisive Battle of Trafalgar; the grandest vessels could carry up to 120 cannons, and they continued to be used well until the late 19th century when the onset of mechanisation and the creation of rifled guns meant that time was running out for these timber titans of the ocean. The last of these great "men-of-war" to be built was the Ottoman and French battleships Mahmudiye (slightly larger than HMS Victory) and Valmy, before the appearance of mechanised propulsion and rifled guns marked the end for these wooden giants once and for all: for while Victory is still preserved as a war memorial, both Mahmudiye and Valmy have since been scrapped. Category:Heavy ships Category:Ultima Ratio